a post-blog
I recently stood up to the Fourth Wall, turned on my tape recorder, and proceeded with the following interview:
Marxy: Hey! You! We have you on the run!
The Fourth Wall: ...
M: You know what I'm talking about. We have shone the light on you, and we know your M.O. We have broken through you.
FW: It's nothing new.
M: Oh, now you can talk?
FW: ...
M: Now you can't talk! How convenient! Listen, you need to start taking responsibility for the ways in which art lords over us, suppresses us, divides us, make us feel inferior. We get so wrapped up in the goddamn drama. That's why we started taking up hammers and busting you open. Ferris Bueller 1, Fourth Wall 0.
FW: I don't exist.
M: That's what you want us to think so we get wrapped up in artistic illusion.
FW: I'm serious. I'm just a demon of your mind. They don't actually make a physical wall in front of the stage. The Fifth Wall - he's the bad guy.
M: There's a Fifth Wall?
FW: Yeah.
M: Do you think I could do something clever in my art by making reference to this Fifth Wall? Do you think I can top that Brecht asshole?
FW: Sure, but you're just falling into that trap again.
M: What trap?
FW: The trap of thinking that exposing artistic conventions is somehow equal to artistic endeavour.
M: Yeah, but...
FW: All this WallBusters stuff started a long time ago. You don't see artists throwing down toilets in galleries anymore, now do you?
M: Actually you do, but that's another can of worms.
FW: Just lay off the Fourth Wall-bashing.
M: Look, you. I don't have to take this from you. You're the bad guy. You're the one who casts all those 30 year-olds as high-school students in Grease, Head of the Class, 90210, etc. Growing up watching those shows makes us all feel like inadequately matured teenagers. You look at Danny Zuko and you look at yourself and you're like, why do I not look like this at age 18?
FW: You are thinking of something else. I am the Fourth Wall. Look me up on Wikipedia. Can you click on what I just said? Or does my dialogue not have hyperlinking capabilities?
M: So you are saying that my problem lies with Hollywood casting directors, not with the Fourth Wall.
FW: Most likely, yes.
M: Okay. I'll let you off this time. But we're planning an expanded DVD release of Parker Lewis Can't Lose to keep you in check.
M: Wait a minute. The Fourth Wall has led me into a state of artistic self-delusion again! Damn you, Fourth Wall!
Posted by marxy at May 26, 2006 1:17 PMHow long before we start calling this pindrop cricket-pleasing comedy "neo-Neomarxisme"?
Posted by: Momus at May 27, 2006 12:12 AM(I mean, we can discuss "the trap of thinking that exposing artistic conventions is somehow equal to artistic endeavour" seriously if you like, but I suspect you just want to drop more references to 80s American teen-buddy movies I haven't seen and don't plan to...)
Posted by: Momus at May 27, 2006 12:17 AMoh, me
Posted by: alin at May 27, 2006 2:07 AMI can hear Marxy sarcastically laughing in the background while he opens a can of happoshu.
Posted by: dzima at May 27, 2006 4:33 AMI can hear Marxy's sinister laughter in the background while he opens a can of happoshu.
Posted by: alin at May 27, 2006 12:02 PMNow that I have collected all the born-in-the-60s marxy-bashers in one place, I can more easily crush you with my iron fist. You fell into my honey trap.
Posted by: marxy at May 27, 2006 12:49 PMhelp,,,help,,someone grant me political asylum
Posted by: alin at May 27, 2006 2:23 PMSo you reckon I look 40, luv? Thanks! That makes me feel so much younger!
Posted by: dzima at May 27, 2006 3:37 PMfourth...... wall.....?
OOOOOhhhh! Now I get it!
no... I guess I dont.
Posted by: Chris_B at May 27, 2006 8:14 PM(I mean, we can discuss "the trap of thinking that exposing artistic conventions is somehow equal to artistic endeavour" seriously if you like, but I suspect you just want to drop more references to 80s American teen-buddy movies I haven't seen and don't plan to...)
See, actually, there is a specific reason I am mentioning bad 80s movies in the same piece about the Fourth Wall. But if you're going to be snobby about culture - as if there is some kind of real barrier between low art and high art - then, fine.
Posted by: marxy at May 27, 2006 11:23 PMwell, *I* liked it.
Posted by: Mike at May 28, 2006 12:18 AMWell, my serious take on that particular question -- and I'll illustrate it with "Back to Ferris Bueller's Most Excellent Breakfast III" if you like -- is that exposing artistic conventions can work perfectly well alongside other artistic devices, techniques and intentions. To set it up as either / or, a conflictual relationship, is just mud-slinging. I doubt any serious work of art consists entirely of exposing artistic conventions. Oh, wait, I'm forgetting series 3 of Beavis and Butthead...
Posted by: Momus at May 28, 2006 3:52 AMI doubt any serious work of art consists entirely of exposing artistic conventions.
You are right!
But you seemed to be oddly irked by me bringing in Ferris Bueller to this discussion, when the pop cultural embrace of all these once-elitist, once-complicated artistic ideas is kind of what I am interested in. I am not sure why Parker Lewis and Brecht can't be mentioned in the same entry. If it was some kind of Third World Folk Art, it would be "neat" though to make these comparisons. American TV, on the other hand, is just "trash," right?
Posted by: marxy at May 28, 2006 4:17 AMI can hear Marxy's sinister laughter in the background while he opens a can of happoshu.
The fact that you think I drink happoshu singlehandedly proves that you don't get anything on my site and should stop commenting.
Posted by: marxy at May 29, 2006 5:08 PM